Synthesis and characterization of liposomal nanoparticles coated with chitosan–folate for efficient delivery of lawsone to pancreatic cancer cells.

In this survey, lawsone as natural bioactive compound encapsulate liposomal nanoparticle coated with chitosan–folate (L-LNPs-CF) has been developed as novel delivery system. The dynamic light scattering (DLS), zeta potential (ZP), field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis were applied to assess the physiochemical characteristic. Furthermore, the potent antioxidant, anticancer and proapoptotic activities were uncovered by cell viability, acridine orange/propidium iodide (AO/PI) staining and flow cytometry. Meanwhile, the real-time PCR technique has been carried out to determine the gene profiling involved in cancer including caspase 3, 9 and Bax. The obtained results exhibited that L-LNPs-CF had 111.98 ± 2.15 nm in size with spherical structure and surface charge of 20.89 mV. The lawsone encapsulation efficiency was 83.8% in nanostructure. Apart from that, the cellular and molecular experiment revealed that L-LNPs-CF had strong free radical scavenging using DPPH and ABTS with respective values of 40.9%, 84.14% and significantly (p < 0.05) inhibited the cell proliferation of pancreatic cell (IC50: 171.94 µg/mL). Intriguingly, L-LNPs-CF notably up-regulated the caspase 3, 9 and bax genes as the key apoptotic genes. Outcome demonstrated that L-LNPs-CF enhances cellular uptake and could be an impressive therapeutic system for pancreatic cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]